Hullo, Little Brother
by LadyCavil
Summary: Guillermo and Aramis (then 6 years old) catch up after one of Guillermo's longer absences. Inspired by a sketch done by ofahattersmind.
1. René

Guillermo's been away from home for a little over a year now. It's not his first extended absence, and it certainly won't be his last, but he hasn't been gone for quite so long since the birth of his youngest brother six years ago.

He's chomping at the bit as the ship docks, the cargo is unloaded, the crew receives their cut of the venture's profits. Payment safely tucked away in his rucksack, he waves goodbye to his shipmates and hastens to secure a horse for the two day ride to his father's house.

He makes the journey in a day and a half, his mount channeling his eagerness to return home and turning it into mile-devouring speed.

When Guillermo reaches the lane that winds to his house and away from the road, he dismounts, electing instead to walk the remaining distance. Only seconds after he comes into view of his abode there's a small body barreling toward him, and his has only the briefest of moments to brace for impact before he's hit with the full force and energy of little René.

"'Llermo!" René squeals his brother's name as he's hoisted up into the air.

"Hullo, little brother," Guillermo chuckles and settles the six year old on his hips knowing that a deluge of tales is a breath away from overtaking him.

"You missed _everything_!" the child exaggerates.

" _Every_ thing?!" Guillermo sighs with mock severity and shakes his head. "Well, I suppose you'll just have to catch me up then.

René takes a moment to sort through recent events in an attempt to find the most important of them all. When he settles on one, his eyes brighten, and his face floods with excitement.

"'Mona's dog had puppies!"

"Did she now?"

René nods vigorously in response, his face split with a grin so wide Guillermo's sure his little brother's cheeks will be aching in a second or two.

"How many are there?"

"Only three." René seems genuinely upset by what he considers a tragically small litter, so Guillermo tries not to laugh at the adorable pout and three tiny fingers René's showing him.

"But that's three more than you had before, isn't it?" Guillermo smiles at his youngest brother who can't resist smiling in return.

"Yeah." René starts swinging his legs (right leg, left leg, right leg, left leg…); Guillermo takes this as his cue to continue his trek toward the rest of his family.

"Tell me about the puppies."

René jumps into describing the little things with all the enthusiasm he possesses, giving those details that seem tremendously important to six-year-olds.

Guillermo smiles all the more. _It's good to be home_.


	2. Mamá

He knows with absolute certainty that his soul is ever restless lest he be at sea, but he's known nothing like the warmth that floods his heart when he's home with his brothers and his sister, his mother and his father.

He halved the distance to the house when his heart suffers another swell of that life-sustaining warmth. From the house emerges a woman, lean and browned by the sun. Her hair is tied away from her face in the way she keeps it when she's working in the kitchen. With flour-caked hands she pushes out of her eyes the strands of hair not quite long enough to be restrained. It leaves streaks of powdery white through otherwise obsidian locks.

Guillermo smiles and chuckles at the way his mamá, dressed for baking and covered in the ingredients, can shame the sun with her fairness.

René hasn't spoken for nearly a minute and a half, having told of every notable feature the puppies possess in no more than two breaths and with such speed Guillermo wonders how he understood any of it. Instead he's been conversing with the birds, answering their twitters and calls with precise whistles of his own, but upon hearing Guillermo's amusement, René's head springs up from where he'd dropped it on his eldest brother's shoulder.

"Mamá!" he cries the instant his gaze alights on his mother, and twisting in Guillermo's arms, he wriggles out of his hold to run for his mother.

Guillermo nearly reaches his mother, but suddenly out of the open door comes the hurtling mass of his fiery Spanish sister. He loses balance completely and falls to the earth only to be pinned a second later. When his lungs are finally able to pull in a descent amount of oxygen, he cracks his eyes open and sees the beaming smile Ramona.

"Took you long enough," she chides before ruffling his hair and rolling away.

"I'm sorry I missed your birthday. And the puppies," he adds as he manages to sit up.

"You made it home," Ramona responds with an undertone of sadness Guillermo wishes she never know. "That's all that matters."

"Still, I got a present."

Her expression brightens considerably at this.

"Ramona, take René and tell your père Guillermo is home," his mother shoos them toward the door and turns once more to her eldest child.

"Guillermo," she smiles, her arms held open to him.

He stands and moves into her embrace. She smells of cinnamon and warmth and _home_. He's missed her, and he says as much. She squeezes him and then holds him at arm's length, her gaze searching.

He's been expecting this, his mother's need to verify that he is whole and healthy.

"What's this?" she tuts, runs her thumb across the scar running from the bridge of his nose to nearly an inch below his right eye. The words 'it's nothing' almost come tumbling out of his mouth, but he manages to swallow them before they do. Guillermo's father, his mother's first husband, was a sailor, so she knows scars, knows that it may be nothing _now_ but at the time…

"English privateers attacked us in the night."

She takes another step back and circles him, searching for any sign that he's injured. "Is that the only one?"

"Nah, I'll show you later," he says with a wink which earns him an eye roll and a playful swat at his arm.

His mother heads back into the house, and Guillermo calls after her, "I got a tattoo!"

"Heaven help me!" he hears her declare in response. He leads his horse to the stables laughing all the way.


	3. In Bond and Blood

As he draws near to his family's stables, his steed calls a greeting to the horses inside, and Guillermo decides he loves the sound after having been so long at sea. He enters and is set upon by his brothers.

Nathanael, oldest of them all, claps him on the shoulder and leads the horse away to an empty stall. Meanwhile Guillermo is nearly overwhelmed by the chatter of his four other brothers. Davet and Edmon speak in a flurry of French at the same time Leandro and Hernando tell him in Spanish an embellished tale of their adventures. He absorbs as much of it as he can, but his brain can only handle so much at once. Before long, all of their telling morphs into showing as Hernando illustrates how he defended the honor of one of the local gals. Leandro plays his second, as he apparently did on that day, and Davet and Edmon assume the roles of the obviously less honorable fiends who committed the offense. The tale dissolves into a wrestling match, although Guillermo is assured that this isn't _quite_ how the events unfolded.

After several moments Guillermo's brothers compose themselves enough to actually greet him. There are hugs all around, but suddenly they're interrupted by the unholy terror which is the sound of an unhappy mother.

"Boys!" Her growl carries all the way from the house to the stables, and every one of them freezes, each praying that perhaps he's not included in that general shout. Four of six of their hopes are dashed in an instant. " _Where_ is my pie?"

Hernando, Leandro, Edmon, and Davet are horrified to hear her voice rapidly drawing near to their location, and in the blink of an eye the four vanish.

Nathanael only chuckles and embraces his step-brother now that the others are no longer demanding all of Guillermo's attention.

"Don't you ever leave me with them again." Nathanael's only have serious; Guillermo knows by the sparkle in his eyes.

"Consider it payback for the camping incident."

Nathanael rolls his eyes, and he and Guillermo turn as one to greet their displeased mother.

"Have you seen them?"

"Northern pasture," Nathanael answers.

"Well I suppose we won't be having desert tonight. I haven't the time to back another pie and cook dinner."

"We can make it," Guillermo offers. "Dinner, not the pie.

"Fish, anyone?" Nathanael grins from ear to ear.

"How can I say no to that?"

"You can't." Guillermo kisses his mother's forehead and heads for the creek, his brother not far behind.

As they saunter down the wandering path to their preferred fishing spot, Guillermo decides that Nathanael is his favorite member of his step-family. Guatier, his step-father, is kind and good, but he lacks the adventurous spirit Guillermo remembers his father possessing. Davet and Edmon are content to raise horses just as their father does, and they don't quite understand what propels him toward the sea. Nathanael, though, he knows much of what Guillermo feels. They are the eldest sons; they're both familiar with the responsibility implied by that role. But even greater than that is their thirst for adventure, for voyages that take them beyond the known and well-mapped places of the world. In Nathanael Guillermo finds a fellow restless soul.

"'Llemo, I swear, if your thinking scares the fish away, you'll be the one to explain why we can't make dinner like we promised."

"See to it that I get a proper burial," Guillermo says and flops on the bank for added melodrama.

"Remind me why you're not an actor."

Guillermo stands and flings his boots and shirt on a nearby rock. "It's impractical. I doubt I'd be paid enough to take care of all of _you_."

"I can't help the vast quantities of food our brothers devour," Nathanael laughs. "Just how much did you make on your latest adventure?"

Guillermo delays answering in favor of lulling a fish into a false sense of security. About the same time Nathanael catches hold of a fish as well. Guillermo allows his right hand to hover over the water and considers his answer.

"Well, Nat, let's just say that we could all sit back and live lavishly for a year or so."

Nathanael lets out a low whistle. "That's impressive."

"It better be. A couple of times I thought I'd never make it back."

"Thus the new scars. And what's this?" Nat queries and tosses his fish onto the back before stepping closer to examine the tattoo on Guillermo's left shoulder blade.

"I thought that was rather obvious," Guillermo manages to say through his laughter.

" _I thought that was rather obvious_ ," Nathanael mocks his brother.

"Nat, you're frightening the fish."

Nathanael huffs in amusement, choosing not to point out that Guillermo is just as much to blame if the fish are disappearing. They settle into a comfortable quiet, but only maintain it so long as they intend to catch more fish. The moment the decided they have enough, Guillermo jumps on Nat's back, an act which lands them both in the chilled water of the creek.

Their water games come to an end when they finally take note of the sun's position in the sky, at which point they gather their catch and sprint back to the house, hoping they can still prepare dinner by a respectable hour.

 **A/N: ofahattersmind did a wonderful sketch for this chapter! You can find it in this chapter on AO3 or over on Tumblr on my page, lizcavil, and on ofahattersmind's.**


End file.
